iEMSs 2016

1. Behaviour change and incentive
modelling for water saving:
first results from the SmartH2O project
Jasminko Novak, Mark Melenhorst, Isabel Micheel,
Chiara Pasini, Piero Fraternali, Andre Rizzoli

2. 2
Motivating households to save water
Key question:
How can users be motivated to sustainably change their water
consumption behaviour and how smart meter feedback can
support this process?
In SmartH2O we have developed a behavioural change support
system to encourage household water saving.
Current work
• Incentive model and behavioural change approach for the
SmartH2O system. Key elements:
• Smart meter feedback, consumption visualisations, and gamification
• First evaluation results from a real-world pilot

3. 3
Changing household water behaviour
MonitoringActionContemplation
Pre-
contemplation
Changing water consumption behaviour is perceived as a multistage process
Different stages, different needs, different incentives
Transtheoretical model of behavioural change (Prochaska & Di Declemente, 1992)
The role of gamification: the use of game design elements in non-game contexts
(Deterding, 2011)
• Virtual, social, and physical rewards keep users engaged
• Rewards are interwoven with mechanisms that promote behavioural change.
• Ongoing usage of the SmartH2O system is expected to build intrinsic motivation,
resulting in a sustainable change of behaviour

4. 4
SmartH2O incentive model
MonitoringActionContemplation
Pre-
contemplation
Water consumption feedback
Actionable tips Actionable tips
Virtual, social, physical rewards
Self-set goals
Hybrid online and card games

5. 5
SmartH2O in action: consumption

6. 6
Water consumptionn
Impact of water
saving
Rewarding water
saving behaviour
Easily
understandable
visualisation
Comparison w/
past behavior
Rewarding
goal setting

7. 7
SmartH2O in action: gamification

8. 8
Virtual, social, physical rewards
water saving
Points are collected on four different thematic areas. The SmartH2O
system features badges and a leaderboard.
Thematic areas:
data collection
water efficiency education
participation
Social comparison
Award
achievements

9. 9
Validation: two case studies
LOCARNO | CH
~400 smart water meters installed
VALENCIA | ES
~490,000 smart water meters installed
Two real-world deployments of the SmartH2O platform
• Swiss case study (Tegna): small-scale validation
• testing and tuning of the incentive model and gamification techniques
• testing the measurement infrastructure, system and user acceptance
• Spanish case study (Valencia): large-scale validation
• full-scale operational roll-out of a new EMIVASA customer service
• validation of SmartH2O real-world impact in water saving

10. 10
First results: Swiss case study
Consumption
class
Average
reduction
Low 41.2%
Medium-low 26.9%
Medium-high 41.2%
High 21.2%
Overall 33.8%
Seasonal influences account for
25-30% of the reduction
Preliminary results in water consumption reduction
First results of portal with visualisations and tips, but
without gamification

11. 11
First results: Swiss case study
Status:
• 49 registered users
• 46 for the Drop! Game
Positive technology
acceptance results
• Performance expectancy
• Effort expectancy
• Attitude towards
technology
(UTAUT, Venkatesh et al.,
2003)
Figure 33. Effort expectancy (ease of use).
Figure 34. Attitude towards using technology.
Technology acceptance results for
visualisations and water saving tips, not
for gamification (yet)

12. 12
Preliminary gamification results
Data show promising lead user activity on the platform, including
interaction with gamification, already after short time
• Peak activity after initial incentives and rewards
• Activity level remains constant after initial peak
• Users interact with gamification elements (e.g. badges, rewards)
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13. 13
Conclusions and next steps
Conclusions
• Behavioural psychology was used to construct a gamified incentive
model for a real-world application to save water, offering
support to users across the behavioural change process.
• Initial promising findings were found in a small-scale pilot
Future work
• Large-scale validation in Valencia with potentially ~500k
households, featuring:
• experimental comparison of SmartH2O vs. a control group
• the currently presented system, extended with social sharing
features
• supported by promotion campaigns to recruit users